Coming from a small town of 1,200 people, Clemson is the perfect place for a young man like Maverick Morris to attend college. It is not too much bigger than Broxton so it made the transition from high school to college a little bit easier than what others experience when going off to college.

Though Clemson has big-time athletics and competes at the highest level on the NCAA fields, it is housed in one of the smallest towns in South Carolina. The city of Clemson has a population of just 15,000 people.

“I think the small town family atmosphere appealed to me because that is what I’m used to and that’s what I have always been in,” Morris said.

That’s why Morris has been so successful at Clemson, both on and off the football field. Not only did the Tigers’ right guard helped them to a national championship in 2016, but he earned his college degree on Friday as one of 63 student-athletes from Clemson who received their degrees on Thursday and Friday during ceremonies at Littlejohn Coliseum.

“It feels great,” Morris said. “I have been at this school that I have loved for the past four years and now I get to say that I graduated from here.”

Morris, who will be entering his final season with the Tigers this fall, said he kind of always knew he wanted to be a Clemson Tiger, even when he was going through the recruiting process and was visiting other schools.

“I knew I kind of wanted to come to Clemson early on, even when I did not know it, if you know what I mean,” the offensive lineman said. “When I finally sat down and thought about it I knew Clemson was the right choice for me so I committed kind of early.

“This place is different from everywhere else I visited.”

Wil Brasington, the executive director of Alumni Relations at Clemson, said something during Friday’s commencement that struck Morris about what makes Clemson different from other schools.

“The head of the alumni association said it best. It is hard to say exactly why this place is so special, but if you had to give one answer, it would probably be about the people,” he said.

It’s the people in small towns such as Clemson and Broxton that make small towns so great across America, just another reason why graduating from Clemson was so special for Maverick Morris.